


The Covert Anti-Progressiveness of The Last Jedi

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Abuse, Art Criticism, Canon Character of Color, Canon Universe, Character Bashing, Criticism, Essays, F/M, Gen, Meta, Misogyny, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Out of Character, Plenty of salt, Racism, Sexism, Women and POC in Star Wars, anti-reylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 23:52:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17171843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: The Last Jedi isn’t nearly as progressive as people would think.





	The Covert Anti-Progressiveness of The Last Jedi

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Wild Card — Minorities / Characters of Colour / Women in Canon
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Warnings: Not exactly flattering towards The Last Jedi. Also, plenty of salt.

_The Last Jedi_ was praised, among other things, for being progressive (neglecting to mention how much progressiveness was there thanks to its predecessor, probably the only bit of progressiveness in _The Last Jedi_ period) when it first came out. It’s gotten to the point where, in a very with-us-or-against-us way, others are portrayed as sexist and racist for not liking it. But is _The Last Jedi_ really that progressive? It’s not. While the attempt is not to be scoffed at, the execution definitely is.  
  
**Characters of Color in The Last Jedi:**  
  
To say that there are few characters of color in The Last Jedi and that their roles are disappointing is an understatement. Besides Rose (who I’ll get to in a moment), there is Finn and Poe, who are the sole men of color in the Sequel Trilogy so far. In _The Force Awakens,_ there were flaws in their execution, but overall, they were likeable, well-rounded characters. In _The Last Jedi,_ they’re treated poorly, even abused. Finn is reduced to being the black comic relief, while Poe is reduced to being the Latino hothead who needs to be taught a lesson in respecting a white woman.  
  
Let’s start with Finn. In his opening scene in _The Last Jedi,_ his recovery from gratuitously cruel injuries that Kylo Ren inflicted on him is played for laughs. He bumps his head on the inside of the pod that he’s sleeping in in order to recover from his injuries. He falls out of his bunk. He wanders around the corridor in a bacta suit. All three are played for jokes and gags, and what makes it doubly insulting is the circumstances that led up to that, which was decidedly not played for laughs. Abrams portrayed what Kylo did to Finn as horrifying, and Johnson treated the aftermath as no more than a joke. In addition, Finn is portrayed as someone who needs to be “taught a lesson” in decency and selflessness, never mind that it does not fit his character in any way, shape or form. Finn is fundamentally a decent being. He turned his back on the First Order. He saved a pilot he barely even knew from whatever other horrible fate that Kylo Ren had in store for him. Did he lie to Rey? Yes, but even that was a more spur-of-the-moment thing to protect himself. And in the end, he ultimately came through for Rey (saving what he loved, basically), standing up to Kylo Ren when Rey was temporarily put out of commission and fighting against him. Did he fail? Yes. But he was courageous, and he deserves praise, not condemnation. That’s another reason why the Finn-bashing in TLJ is so insulting; it overlooks what a fundamentally good man he is. His only “crime” was getting in the way of the ship Johnson wanted to write (a.k.a. Reylo). So Johnson derails him in subtle ways. He portrays his decision to try and help Rey as an act of cowardice (even Rose calls him a selfish traitor). He plays into racial stereotypes, such as Finn getting distracted by the glitz and glamour of Cantobight and of course, having to be corrected by Rose (also known as playing into the stereotype of the Sambo, a gambling-loving black stereotype, at least according to the #starwarshatespeopleofcolor hashtag on Twitter). And finally, Finn is abused. He’s tased by Rose in their first meeting together. He’s dragged to the brig on his back — the same place where Kylo Ren injured him, and it’s played for laughs. He’s forced to kneel before Hux (a blatantly obvious Hitler parallel. Considering that JJ Abrams is Jewish, he did not do this lightly) and slapped across the face. He’s demeaned, humiliated, put down. He’s put through a pointless sidequest to “prove” that the very white Admiral Holdo knows better than three characters of color, the only major characters of color in the Sequel Trilogy so far. The blatant antiblackness against Finn is bad enough, but Johnson isn’t going to stop there.  
  
Next is the matter of Poe. This is especially painful considering that Poe is one of my favorites in the Sequel Trilogy so far. In _The Force Awakens,_ despite his limited screentime, Poe made quite the impression on me. He’s witty, brave, caring, sees the beauty in others even when they don’t know it exists, and a natural leader. In _The Last Jedi,_ he’s portrayed as a reckless hothead disobeying orders on purpose and who gets people killed (to the point that the mainstream media considers him the epitome of toxic masculinity. Which is one hell of a way to treat a Latino character, really), he’s abused by Leia (slapped gratuitously while being demoted for his actions, humiliated and put down, forced into a role he’s not ready for, tased, and again, humiliated and put down, albeit in a subtle way), patronized and put down by Holdo, and generally portrayed as a hotheaded Latino who needs to be put in his place by a white woman. That isn’t Poe. In _The Force Awakens,_ Poe and Leia got along fine, no questions asked. And Poe does have valid points about Holdo, but the movie portrays them as more proof of his “misogyny” and “hot-headedness”, two traits he never displayed in _The Force Awakens._  
  
And the portrayal of Finn and Poe worked, fundamentally, for the mainstream media. Multiple thinkpieces were put out trying to paint Poe as being more destructive than Kylo Ren, “uber-macho”, etc. Basically, several of the worst stereotypes of Latino men. (Latino women get a whole different set of stereotypes) Finn was called in one article a man who did more damage to the Resistance than Kylo ever did (never mind that it was DJ who ultimately sold out the Resistance, another Latino character portrayed in a mostly negative light with being selfish and greedy and lacking redeeming qualities. So no, even with his own original characters of color, Johnson does poorly). Johnson, intentionally or no, played on the biases that the media already has towards people of color, and he succeeded.  
  
But people of color aren’t the only ones who get shabby treatment.  
  
**Women In The Last Jedi:**  
  
While there were quite a few publications that hailed _The Last Jedi_ as a feminist masterpiece, the feminism in _The Last Jedi_ is very fragile at best and outright sexist and racist at worst. A shining example would be the case of Admiral Holdo. According to Rian Johnson himself, he apparently thought that “a woman in a dress with feminine energy” would be the best thing for Poe to go up against, which is problematic in and of itself, as it implies that the idea of a woman in charge is somehow unusual/should be treated as a conflict, when in fact, women can be as competent in leadership as men. Gender ultimately does not dictate competence. Competence alone dictates competence, and putting aside the Idiot Plot elements of Holdo’s character (in that the only reason she kept the plan from Poe was that the plot demanded it to create artificial conflict), Holdo is there mostly to teach Poe a lesson/put him in his place. There are numerous Unfortunate Implications of having to put a character of color “in their place”, especially given the power dynamics (more specifically power imbalance) between characters of color and white authority figures. But a female character being included solely to teach a man a lesson is spectacularly poor feminist storytelling. Female characters are not there for a man’s benefit. Female characters are there because they deserve to be, as much as any other character. Holdo also falls into the unpleasant female stereotype of the leader in charge, if she’s a woman, being portrayed as a generally unsympathetic-to-the-protagonists, icy, patronizing creature (which _The Last Jedi_ and its portrayal of Leia also falls into, never mind how in the Original Trilogy and even _The Force Awakens_ she was portrayed as a kind, caring, strong-willed character, and more importantly, not a female stereotype. Not only is TLJ’s portrayal of Leia stereotypical, it is completely illogical as to why she would undergo a behavior change mere seconds after TFA. Even the interpretation of her mourning Han doesn’t explain her complete personality change). Think about it — how many male authority figures are portrayed as solid and wise? If Holdo were a man, it is highly unlikely that he (she) would be portrayed as the gratuitously-incompetent-for-the-sake-of-the-plot authority figure that she is in TLJ. If Johnson really wanted to be feminist and progressive, he would have portrayed Holdo as an authority figure not defined by her gender or feminine energy, but by her abilities.  
  
While we’re on the subject of double standards in female characterization, we come to the matter of Rey, which is a crushing disappointment compared to her TFA characterization. It’s not the fact that she has a romantic subplot that is the problem. Indeed, it’s not even the fact that she has a romance subplot with the film’s villain, Kylo Ren. It’s fundamentally how the film handles it. It’s not without its good moments; the “You are not alone” scene is reasonably touching, all things considered. The rest, however, is contrived and even downright unfortunate in how it’s executed. It’s not something I noticed until I rewatched _The Last Jedi_ but Kylo treats Rey horribly. He blatantly makes sure to remind her (twice) that her parents abandoned her on Jakku (“like garbage”, as he puts it), and treats it as “proof” that she’s nothing (even his addendum at the end of his speech, “but not to me”, does little to ease the blow), simply because of things that were not her fault. (And what a downright insulting, elitist message to send out to children with alcoholic/addict parents, honestly) And Rey never gets a chance to rebut those messages in full; Indeed, while Kylo is going on his speech about Rey coming from nothing, Rey never gets a chance to say that he’s wrong. She mostly stands there and takes it, at least before her attempt to summon Anakin’s lightsaber to her. In addition, Rey’s arc of becoming a hero in her own right is disrupted. While Luke in the Original Trilogy had an arc of trying to save his father, his arc kept going, especially when he faced a challenge from the Emperor to fall to the Dark Side or ultimately resist it. Indeed, Luke’s arc was kept intact in terms of him becoming a Jedi in his own right. In contrast, Rey’s arc is sacrificed in favor of her becoming Kylo’s attempted savior with little to no transition between her hating Kylo and ultimately wanting to save him. It isn’t used to deepen Rey’s character in any way, or to make a point about similar real life situations. It’s simply a way of putting Rey down. And it worked, for the mainstream media — Vanity Fair called her dynamic with Kylo in _The Last Jedi_ “sexy”, while Waffle House used their relationship to advertise their products.  
  
Finally, there is Rose Tico, and I was debating whether or not to put her with the characters of color section or the women’s section. I suppose I can talk about her as both. When Rose was first announced, I was excited to see an Asian woman in Star Wars (even though, full disclosure, I am white as white can be), but Rose was slightly disappointing. In the novelization, she’s even worse — she gets repeatedly catty whenever Rey is brought up, a frankly insulting female stereotype that suggests the moment a man gets involved, two women forget any trace of logic and decency and simply go into catfight mode. (I can only hope that JJ Abrams doesn’t actually do that in Episode IX, Complete with rolling in mud or Jell-O.) In addition, she treats Finn shabbily, frequently pushing him around — it’s blatant in the novelization but it’s definitely present in the film as well. And finally, even her sacrifice at the end is over a man. Finn was about to sacrifice himself for the good of the Resistance, but Rose ultimately sacrificed herself for a man she was merely infatuated with. Romance, like with Reylo, is not the problem. The execution is. Rose’s sacrifice was there for one reason only: to further Finn’s character arc. It’s insulting, reducing Rose to a mere plot device in order to make Finn a “better” man.  
  
Other female characters fare no better. Paige Tico, Rose Tico’s sister, is killed off for one sole reason: to make us hate Poe for his recklessness against the First Order. It’s not the First Order that we’re supposed to hate, but Poe, never mind that he was far from like that in The Force Awakens. In addition, Tallie Lintra is simply killed off during Kylo Ren’s attack on the _Raddus_ , Phasma is simply killed off after a rather short fight, Leia is knocked unconscious for most of the movie, and Rose is also knocked unconscious (after, again, sacrificing herself to further a male character’s storyline. Sound like a pattern? I think so). While including women in more roles is admirable, the stories that Rian Johnson chose to tell about them are cliches and toxic.  
Representation for women, in the end, is not about simply including women in more roles and expecting pats on the back for it. Representation is about not only creating more roles for women, but making them meaningful as well.  
  
**Conclusion:**  
  
_The Last Jedi_ isn’t as progressive as it thinks it is. If anything, it’s anti-progressive. It’s easy to call everyone who liked the movie racists and sexists, when it’s mostly assuming that everyone is like the Unfortunate Implications (to quote TV Tropes) in this movie. In a world where we’re so divided as is, we don’t need _The Last Jedi._ It’s no more than a piece of bad racist and sexist fanfiction that got turned into a professional movie script. Before anyone starts calling anyone who disliked the movie racist and sexist, really think about the messages in _The Last Jedi._ Would you really show it to your children to teach them how to be better people? To teach them to be open-minded, kind, progressive? Would you show your daughters that they should ignore what a man did to them and try to redeem that man? Would you show a child of color that movie? Stories can hold vital messages, and we don’t need messages like those in _The Last Jedi_ to echo throughout the years. We need good stories about women and people of color to carry through the years. We deserve better than this.  
  
In the end, we all do.


End file.
